we quinn if th evening with news from the white house. president obama heldaise first press conference since his reelection. he delivered a brief opening statement, emphasizing the need to avert the fiscal cliff set to take effect january 1. >> there's only one way to solve these humans and that is to do it together. as i've said before, i'm open to compromise and i'm open to new ideas and i've been encouraged the past week to hear republican after republican to agree on the need from more revenue from the wealthiest american as parent of our arithmetic if we're serious about reducing the deficit. >> the president fielded questions. the budget was the most pressing subject. obama vowed not tho extend the bush tax cuts for the top 2% of income earners. >> when it comes to the top 2%, what i'm not going to do is to extend further a tax cut for folks who don't need it, which would cost close to $1 trillion, and it's very difficult to see how you make up that trillion dollars, if we're serious about deficit reduction, just by closing loophole